4 things every hotel should be doing on Facebook now

New hotel social media tools can help differentiate flagged properties….

As a property flying under a global brand flag, you enjoy several key benefits:

Worldwide name recognition and consumer trust.

Access to millions of loyalty members.

Exposure on the Brand.com global website.

But unfortunately, due to scale and volume, remote, corporate brand marketing teams are often unable to tell your property’s unique story and differentiate you from sister properties in your region.

New advancements in hotel social media can help.

No longer just a means for ‘liking’ and holding goofy contests to attract more “followers,” Facebook is now an advertising powerhouse that allows you to target anyone in their global database with laser-sharp precision – even users who are not following your hotel!

But Facebook’s advertising platform can be overwhelming and complicated… so we spoke to Tambourine’s social media directors Thomas McDermott and Elle Andress to break down 4 key tactics for flagged properties to tap into the power of Facebook’s juggernaut advertising platform:

1. Targeting loyalty program members

Facebook’s paid advertising platform enables hotel marketers to emplace unique content, inspirational images, promos and offers in the newsfeeds of highly targeted consumers with pinpoint precision. Ads can target by demographics, geography, interests, hobbies, and behaviours. For branded properties, this means you can target your social ads to folks who are interested in (or members of) your flag’s loyalty program (see screenshot below). This enables you to create awareness and preference for your property vs other similarly branded properties in the area.

2. The 28-day pixel

Until recently, hotel marketers were unable to track the success of their paid Facebook campaigns unless a guest booked directly from Facebook in the same session.

But the relatively new 28-day pixel feature now allows flagged hotel marketers to track a user’s path for 28 days after they have either viewed or clicked on your hotel’s Facebook ad. This tracking tool gives you insight into how well your Facebook investments are moving potential guests down the sales funnel.

“Most importantly, it allows for more revenue attribution to your Facebook ads,” said Elle. “You can gauge if your ad campaigns are contributing to conversions or not.”

3. Reach & frequency

Facebook’s new Reach & Frequency tool allows branded properties to pre-purchase larger audiences at a lower cost and ensures those users see the ad a fixed amount of times. You can customise a message, pre-purchase a minimum of 200K users within your chosen market and ensure those Facebook users see your marketing message however many times you like… typically 5-6 times.

“Most recently, we’ve leveraged this tool for one of our Caribbean clients. We conducted a winter campaign to saturate northern markets. Plus, we’re currently working on a campaign to introduce a new property to the Florida market.”

“This is also particularly useful for properties that are new to the market and want to introduce their product or have a very particular feeder market,” Tom explains.

While not entirely a new marketing tool, Facebook’s Canvas Ad is a great way for flagged properties to differentiate themselves in the absence of a custom-designed experiential “vanity” website.

Canvas allows you to create a custom mobile web experience that lives inside of Facebook, doesn’t require IT or coding, but still delivers a custom experience that’s in line with brand standards.

“This is an ideal avenue to really go in depth and highlight the unique attributions of the property,” Tom explained. “From there, you can send them to the brand channel to book.”

Bonus: What Facebook tactics should you stay away from?

Tom and Elle also suggested which tired practices to avoid:

“I think a lot of properties are still using too much hard sales language for their organic posts on Facebook, which is a big turnoff to the consumer. The place to do the sales style pitch is in the paid ads platform. For organic content, hotels should keep the copy light and relatable and show a human voice to the brand.”

– Elle

“I think there is still too much hype on fan growth. Yes, it is still worthwhile to build a network of relevant users. However, the audience builder tools really help you identify users who have expressed an interest in the property or who show relevant or valuable behaviours. You have access to those users whether they are fans or not.”